Our process | ingredients
The technical bit
We use a traditional cold soap making process to produce our bricks. Each brick is a specially devised bar of soap to be used for cleaning hair and body. The shampoo brick also has added moisturiser for those that need or simply like that.
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid. Soaps are surfactants and are created by mixing fats and oils with a base alkali.
Soaps are made through a saponification process. This involves mixing certain oils with lye (sodium or potassium hydroxide) to produce glycerine and a fatty acid salt called 'soap'. The skill lies in choosing which oils and in which quantities to produce a solid bar of the right consistency to be effective as a shampoo or shower bar.
What is in our bricks
Coconut, olive and castor oils
Coconut oil has many reported benefits including scalp health and adding shine and softness to hair.
Olive oil is said to moisturise hair and reduce scalp irritation.
Castor oil is a vegetable oil pressed from castor beans. It has long been used in traditional medicine and is also said to moisturise the scalp, ease dandruff and leave hair smooth and shiny.
Through the process of saponification, these three oils react with the alkali to produce the alkali salts of the fatty acids in these oils - sodium cocoate, sodium olivate and sodium castorate.
Aqua aka water
Glycerine
This is a natural by-product of the saponification process of the mixing of the oils and the alkali. It is considered to be a natural emollient and is often found in moisturising creams.
Essential oils
These are compounds extracted from plants. We have chosen the essential oils used in our bricks carefully for both their bold manly scents and their individual properties.
Cocoa butter
Extracted from the cocoa bean and commonly applied to skin as a moisturiser, we use a little cocoa butter in our shampoo bricks for conditioning the hair.
What about lye?
Lye is used for (and essential to) the saponification process. None of the lye remains in the end product of the soap.
Storing and transporting your bricks
Our bricks lather really well. More so than hand soap. To achieve this, the mix of ingredients used results in a slightly softer brick. It is even more important to allow your brick to dry after you have enjoyed lathering up and using it. Your brick will also last for longer if you don't let it stand in the shower with you.
We recommend you invest in a holder that lets the water drain off, leaving your brick to dry and be perfect for your next use. Our brick tray is perfect for this job.
For travel and trips to the gym, you can easily transport your brick in a container. There are some great travel tins available.
We hope to introduce the most eco-friendly tins to our product range soon. In the meantime, you could take a look at any of the brilliant websites offering eco-friendly products for sale.